A Network or a Mailing List

Excerpted from an email I received on my Linkedin account…………

I have 1,500 connections in my networks first tier. My next milestone is 10,000 connections. One of you asked if I know all my connections in my first tier. I know a lot of them but not all of them.   Last Friday I met a man from the UK who now has 10,000 people in his first tier and 250,000 in the 2nd and 3rd. He knows most people in his 1st tier due to the fact, that he travels the world and visits local networking meetings.

When I read this email, I was amazed that someone would have 10,000 people in their network.  Then I thought about the value of having a network with 10,000 people in it.  Here is my list and I am open to your suggestions.

1.  I could send all of them my email Tip of the Week and because of the numbers I had, I would be able to get some good advertisers on my newsletter.

2.  I could promote my products or services to them.

3.  I could sell them something.

4.  I could ask them for something, like donations to my charity.

5.  I could invite them to participate in passing along a chain letter.

6.  I could ask them for information.

If you look at the list, it is all about me, what value they have to me, not what value I could bring to them.

I guess there are the rare people in the world who really know 10,000 people.  I know that I am not one of them, while I would like to have 10,000 people on my mailing list to send all of my insightful ideas to; I am not sure that I want or need 10,000 people in my Network.

So, ask yourself, when you are out there networking, “What am I trying to build, a mailing list or a solid network of people whom I can add value to?”   A strong network not only helps you build your business, they will add value to your life.

Who are Your Best Clients

Spending time to identify similarities in your clients will make a major impact on your business.  For instance, if you discover that many of your current clients are low income producing, yet use much of your time and energy you will be able to shift your energy to attracting a different kind of client.

When I owned an insurance agency, I had one client that produced about 30% of my income.  As I began to track how much time I was using to keep this client happy, I realized that I did not really like this client, they were difficult, demanding and taxing. They used more that 80% of my time just to keep them happy. At the same time the rest of my clients were getting less than 15% of my time, they were responsible for 70% of my income, and they regularly sent me referrals.  While the big client, sent me nothing but headaches.  As I shifted my focus, spent more time with the clients I liked working with, and developed better relationships with them, I began to make more money and enjoy my business again.  When my difficult client left for a lower bid, I did not feel the pain.

What I learned from this experience is not everybody is or should be my target market.
I understood the best target market for me were more clients like the ones I had.  Businesses in the blue collar industries, like tool and die shops, and manufacturing companies who themselves had a niche market in the auto industry.  When I understood that, I was able to build relationships with other people who wanted to do business with that target market.

Who are your clients?
Where are you spending your time?
Who are the clients that take little of your time but bring you consistent income?
How much income is each of your clients responsible for?  (track the money)
Are you being referred to the clients you want or are you getting anybody?

The more time you spend identifying your target market, the more successful you will be at training referral partners to find those target market clients for you.